Mahmood the silver lining for England

If the Champions Trophy debacle has left a dark cloud hanging over England's Ashes preparations, then Sajid Mahmood is the silver lining, especially for those awaiting the reunion of the Fab Four.

The Lancashire fast bowler has been one of the few players in Andrew Flintoff's squad to enhance his reputation in India. Having contained the host nation and then briefly threatened to demolish Australia, he will head Down Under infused with the belief that selection for the first Test in Brisbane is there for the taking.

England's selectors have persevered with Mahmood, 24, after he was taken to the cleaners during the one-day series against Sri Lanka in the summer. His survival was a triumph of potential over performance, but he is finally delivering on a regular basis.

It was the boy from Bolton of Pakistani stock who shot down the land of his father at Headingley in August. Now, by maintaining his progress here, he is not only furthering his own prospects of playing at the Gabba, he is also filling another gap in the Ashes jigsaw.

Mahmood laid down a positive marker last Saturday by dismissing Adam Gilchrist and Ricky Ponting in an impressive new-ball spell. He will hope to resume where he left off against the West Indies in two days' time, but his sights are understandably trained further ahead.

'I think there is an Ashes place up for grabs and I don't think I'm bowling too badly at the moment,' he said yesterday.

'There will be a lot of competition with Liam Plunkett coming back in and Jimmy (James Anderson) recovering from injury, so I've got to just keep doing what I've been doing.

'I'm pretty confident about getting picked, but you can't presume that you're going to be in the side. I have to keep working hard, keep putting the performances in and keep improving.'

When England's heroic exploits in overturning a generation of Australian supremacy gripped the nation in the summer of 2005, it was the fast bowlers - the Fab Four - who made the difference.

Ponting and his fellow batsmen could not escape the stranglehold as Flintoff, Steve Harmison, Simon Jones and Matthew Hoggard bombarded them with pace and bounce, swing and seam movement.

The man who masterminded the onslaught was Troy Cooley, the bowling coach who returned home to work with Australia earlier this year. From his seat on the other side of the divide on Saturday, he saw that Mahmood has it in him to act as a like-for-like replacement for the injured Jones.

'It is clear that the more Saj is playing, the better he's getting,' he said. 'He has the tools, so if he has the desire, too, he can be a fantastic player for England.

'Australian pitches have pace and bounce, so if you're tall and can bowl at high speed like Saj, you have a good chance of being successful. And he has the attributes to get reverse swing. He worked on it with Jones at the academy.

'What he did the other day wasn't a surprise, our batsmen have been preparing for him. They saw him playing against Pakistan and know that, as someone who bowls in the high 80s to early 90s (miles per hour), he could be a threat.'

Harmison, of course, also fits into that category but his predicament is wildly different to Mahmood's. The Geordie, 27, has pedigree and experience, but he is woefully out of form at present following an injury lay-off.

As a man who has worked closely with him, Cooley plays down English concern, or Australian complacency. He has seen it all before.

'As a big, lanky bowler it has always taken him a while to get back in a nice rhythm and get co-ordinated again,' said Cooley. 'At the moment he's just a bit off the pace and it looks like he just needs to get his confidence up. It's hard for him when the white ball is flying all over the place.

'When he's on song he's England's main man - a bowler who demands respect. Whatever happened on Saturday, we won't be taking him lightly, we'll be preparing for Harmy at his best.'